Article
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Apotropaic Middle Ages laughter: Visions of the Sacred Obscene in Classical Greece
Manuel ÁLVAREZ JUNCO
Original title: La risa apotropaica medieval: visiones de lo obsceno sagrado de la Grecia Clásica
Published in Music in Antiquity, Middle Ages & Renaissance
In classical Greece, the images of the apotropaic –protector against evil eye, satanic spirits or misfortune–, together with their magical and sacred aspects, combined the grotesque, the obscene and the laughable. This article delves into the analysis of this surprising conjunction in the symbolic visualizations of that culture, pointed out by some authors as belonging to the “sacred”. It also analyzes them as a possible origin of the images of explicit obscenity of the carvings on the exteriors of many buildings of the European Middle Ages, such as the spinaries, sheelas, double-tailed mermaids, moons, gargoyles, caganers, etc.
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Schemata, Motif and Topics in Theme and Variations in Sonata K305 for Piano and Violin in A Major by W. A. Mozart (1756-1791)
Aline Mendonça PEREIRA; Ernesto HARTMANN
Original title: Schemata, Motivo e Tópicas no Tema e Variações da Sonata K305 para Piano e Violino em Lá Maior de W. A. Mozart (1756-1791)
Published in Music in Antiquity, Middle Ages & Renaissance
The present work investigates in the second movement of Mozart's Sonata for Piano and Violin in A Major K305 (1778) – Tema con Variazioni – the compositional and expressive procedures employed by the composer. To this end, it reviews the literature on the Theme with Variations (Zamacois, Stein, Schoenberg and Scliar) concepts of Topic, Style, and Schemata (Ratner, Hatten, Sutcliffe, Day-O’Connell) proposing an analysis of the movement grounded on these concepts. The results are discussed in the light of the analysis and it is concluded that, even using the non-amplifying Variation or Fantasy model; preserving formal structures due to the Schemata repeatedly employed; and presenting themselves within the script described by Ratner (from his study of contemporary treatises), the diversity of styles and topics present ensure unity of the movement as expected of a part of a larger work without abstaining the contrast that is widely explored by the vast repertoire of composer of the constitutive elements of each style.
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Music and dance in the paintings of Nicolas-Antoine Taunay (1755-1830)
Bárbara DANTAS
Original title: Música e dança nas pinturas de Nicolas-Antoine Taunay (1755-1830)
Published in Music in Antiquity, Middle Ages & Renaissance
The French painter, Nicolas-Antoine Taunay, lived in a confused time. It witnessed one of the most important political upheavals the world has ever seen, the French Revolution. Even though he was in the “eye of that hurricane”, his painting pleased both the monarchy and the republicans. An example of this are the landscape paintings in which he referred to an iconography linked to dance and music, more specifically, to the roda and to fête galante. This work, therefore, intends to demonstrate how modern landscape painting, normally dissociated from a political content, is also a symbolic expression of power while referring to classical and melancholic themes.
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La quale fu cantata molto bene – The performances of Alessandro Striggios’ monumental 40-part compositions in Munich 1567/68
Bernhard RAINER
Published in Music in Antiquity, Middle Ages & Renaissance
In the 1560s Alessandro Striggio composed monumental works such as his Missa sopra Ecco si beato giorno à 40 and a 40-voice motet, both of which can be proven to have been performed in Munich in 1567 and 1568. Analysis of the performing forces of Munich’s Cantorey of this time concludes not only that the instrumental participation of these performances must have been significant, but also that the works were transposed downward. Furthermore, a hypothesis is proposed that the Munich performance of an untitled 40-voice motet in 1568 involved Striggio’s Ecce beatam lucem à 40, which itself may constitute a contrafactum of Ecco si beato giorno, a madrigal that circulated in copies during the decade.
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Between sins and virtues. A look at the feminine condition in medieval daily life through sacred and secular songs
Antonio Celso RIBEIRO
Original title: Entre Pecados e Virtudes. Um olhar sobre a condição feminina no cotidiano medieval a partir de cantigas sacras e seculares
Published in Music in Antiquity, Middle Ages & Renaissance
The present work intends to briefly analyze the role of the medieval woman from her social class whether she is a well-born woman, or a slave, God fearing or mistress of her needs and desires, lover or loved one, courtesan, intelectual and artist and their interest-relationships with eroticism. Therefore, we will briefly discuss on these roles and their implications for society at the time, especially for the joglarezas/soldadeiras and ŷawari – slave-singers specially trained within Arab-Muslim culture, outlining the boundaries between public and private spaces and between the sacred and the profane.
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Saint Augustine and the definition of Music as Scientia (De Musica I, IV, 5)
Luís Carlos Silva de SOUSA
Original title: Santo Agostinho (354-430) e a definição de Música como Scientia (De Musica I, IV, 5)
Published in Music in Antiquity, Middle Ages & Renaissance
The objective of this work is to analyse the use of the term Scientia in the definition of Music proposed by Saint Augustine in the work De Musica (I, IV, 5). The Music, one of the seven Liberal Arts, was understood by Augustine as a manifestation of th order of audible realities. The Music had as its object not exactly modulatio, but bona modulatio. Many animals are capable of modulation, they fellow numerical laws: but, for Saint Augustine, the Music was a Scientia bene modulandi, and it assumed a specific, transcendent telos (τέλος). The term Scientia could not be dispensed with, since ignorance of the bona modulatio, as an exercise of Reason, could cause disorder in the use of song.
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Sodomites before the Inquisition
Rocío RODRÍGUEZ SÁNCHEZ
Original title: Los sodomitas ante la Inquisición
Published in Mirabilia Journal
Sodomy in the kingdoms of Spain was punishable by burning, according to civil laws. Only in the Crown of Aragon did the Inquisition in the courts of Barcelona, Valencia and Zaragoza. Those guilty of heinous sin were tortured, burned at the stake, publicly flogged, sent to galleys, or exiled. Many tried to get rid of these punishments by presenting the most diverse and incredible excuses.
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Beauty and Ugliness as Aesthetics Aspects in Medieval Music: Order in Disorder
Antonio Celso RIBEIRO
Original title: Beleza e Feiura como aspectos estéticos na Música Medieval: a Ordem na Desordem
Published in Mirabilia Journal
Through a brief examination of anonymous music treatise La Doctrina de Compondre Dictatz, this work intends to expose some aesthetic aspects of the medieval songbook, confronting its main genres and making some considerations about beauty and ugliness in the songs of troubadours.
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Abacus Schools. The invention of a language
Giovanni PATRIARCA
Original title: Escuelas de ábaco. La invención de un lenguaje
Published in Mirabilia Journal
Abacus schools are fundamental for mathematical, geometric and economic literacy as well as for the scientific development of these disciplines with their own sectorial language and style. The Abacus treatises constitute the basis of a solid administrative, accounting and commercial training. In a fruitful exchange with all expressions of society, they become the main engine for the consolidation of a new linguistic koiné.
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Textile crafts regulations in the Portuguese urban areas, 14th-15th centuries
Joana SEQUEIRA
Original title: A regulamentação dos ofícios têxteis no mundo urbano em Portugal, séculos XIV-XV
Published in Mirabilia Journal 31 (2020/2)
This article examines the regulations concerning the different textile occupations in Portugal between the 14th and 15th centuries, with a specific focus on those emanated by the municipalities of Lisbon, Porto and Évora. To understand the specificities of the textile sector in contrast to other crafts in different spaces, the regulations are classified and analysed according to its contents. Since these contents vary depending on the authors of the regulations, the analysis considers the socio-political context of its production. I. Introduction: Crafts regulation as a research topic II. The Portuguese legal context and the available sources III. The textile sector in Portugal in the Middle Ages IV. The contents of regulations: setting wages V. The contents of regulations: weights and measures control and quality control VI. The contents of regulations: activities settings and sanitary conditions VII. The contents of regulations: levies VIII. The silences of the regulations IX. Conclusions.
